SF enviro Tom Steyer is still nation’s largest super PAC donor

We knew that San Francisco billionaire former hedge fund manager/enviro activist Tom Steyer was a big super PAC donor.

Now, while 21 Americans have already kicked in $1 million to super PACs in this election cycle, according to NBC and the Center for Responsive Politics, Steyer remains officially the biggest individual political donor to super PACs. This updates an earlier listing from the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.

The Democrat Steyer poured $11 million into his super PAC NextGen Climate Action Committee, which largely spent against Republicans who they deemed as not supporting climate change policies.

No. 2 on Sunlight Foundation’s list: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who directed $8.7 million into Independence USA, which supports those who share Bloomberg’s pro-gun control, pro-same sex marriage and education reform ideas.

It’s a turnaround from 2012’s list of top super PAC donors, which was dominated by conservatives. Long forgotten are the days when liberals/Democrats railed on the unlimited spending power of super PACs. President Obama once famously worried that the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision would “open the floodgates for unlimited amounts of corporate money to flow into our political system.”

“I want to elect a president who will appoint a Supreme Court justice who will overturn Citizens United so there is no necessity or no legality for this unfettered flow of money,” Granholm told The Chronicle.

“But you can’t unilaterally disarm,” Granholm said. If liberals don’t play by the existing rules, she said, “we would be laying down all weapons and forfeiting. And we’re not going to do that.”